The Last Agony of Making Peace

Abstract

Ever since the 1660’s Louis XIV and his ministers, generals, and diplomats had been preoccupied one way or another by the problem of the Spanish succession. For Louis, lack of heirs was something that God alone could do something about, and failing that divine decision, his pride as a Bourbon, son of a Spanish Hapsburg and husband of another, would lead him to fight for everything he considered to be his inheritance. Alliances, wars, and treaties had been made decade after decade, always with the problem of the Spanish succession in mind.

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Notes

Great Britain, Historical Manuscripts Commission, Report on the Mss of His Grace the Duke of Portland (London, 1899), V, 34–41. This text was supplied by Professor Joseph Klaits of Oakland University.Google Scholar